"But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura
Harmonia is not one to participate in kingdom gimmicks, she finds the entire thing tiresome. Raised in the Amazons by their every wonderful Lady and General and blah blah will do that to you. Thankfully she had magic (restored! glorified! wonderful! magic!) to cause the uptick in her mood enough to let herself be dragged on such an excursion.
And, of course, at her heels comes little Ajatar, though not so little anymore. She's a year old now, standing nearly as tall as her frail dam, her wide eyes taking in the entire scene, her scaled legs healed from whatever boiled nonsense she unleashed onto the world earlier. The two are an unlikely pair. Harmonia chooses her favorite form of transportation - floating just above the ground, legs tucked under her as though laying on a magic carpet. Ajatar seems muscular in comparison though just a yearling, her smokey black coat broken in sweat from the strangely long trip from Pangea to Sylva.
Ajatar needs no explanation about their trip. She only heard "go," and so she followed. She meant to follow Rodrik but something in his eyes, something in her mothers eyes, told her to keep their friendship close to her chest. Nothing good could come from that, nothing good at all.
So she crosses into the breach that is Sylva, a striking contrast to the barren, sickly Pangea. Harmonia does not halt at the border, instead she cruises right inside the kingdom as though it is owed to her. Ajatar hesitates at the border, feeling a bit...off put...with the situation. At long last she follows after, making as much noise as she can to attract anyone. Her mothers soundless cruising will not invite the happiest of receptions, she thinks.
Oh, so they had a visitor now did they? This should prove to be quite interesting. Zhenga had been the one to inform the group of grazing mares that there were a couple of strangers crossing into the border, an action which pushed Anahi into going to investigate immediately. She requested for Raxa and Eiria to accompany her, Eiria so she could have the benefit of a lesson and Raxa because the mare was one of the warriors. Not to mention one of the most proud and fearless, so it'd be good to have her on their side when greeting newcomers.
Raxa had told her daughter to stay behind, since the filly had recently undergone an unpleasant encounter with Karaugh and a friend she'd brought back to Sylva. Not wanting Zhenga to cause trouble since they didn't know who these two new horses were, the filly was made to remain behind in the herd's main grazing meadow. Content and convinced that the filly would listen to her dam (hopefully), Anahi and her small party set out.
The trio made their way across the meadow before entering the tree line, picking up their speed to a canter. Normally, galloping through a huge gathering of trees as tall as the sky might prove tedious to those not familiar with the environment. These three mares were practiced; they knew how to navigate the land, they knew how to use their home to their advantage in the case of an attack.
Once they emerged from the trees, Anahi halted, followed by her two companions. She easily spotted one of the visitors first; it was a palomino mare, accompanied by a younger black filly.
Trotting over to greet them, Raxa and Eiria flanking her, Anahi whinnied to attract the attention of the visitors. Upon reaching their side, Anahi halted, dipping her head in greeting, a motion which Raxa and Eiria copied, though Anahi did sense hesitation when Raxa did it. The mare was a warrior, so it made sense why she was more careful. Still, she also seemed to know how to fake hospitality, seeing as her display had been so slightly only those who knew her well could've picked it up.
"Hello; welcome to Sylva. My name is Anahi. I would ask for the same respect in giving me your names, however, I have noticed you already displayed very little upon crossing our border without alerting any of us first. I thank you, young filly," Anahi nodded at the black one, whose coat was now displaying more of a smokey color up close, "for alerting us, but still, it is not a good first impression. Did they perhaps fail to teach you customs of entering another land where you come from?"
02-28-2017, 10:37 PM (This post was last modified: 02-28-2017, 11:57 PM by kahzie.)
djinni
She had been dreaming of the ocean.
As she blinks herself awake, she can remember the roar of the tide and the way her skin felt against the rough sand. Something remains out of reach though: the memory of who was beside her. It was not an unpleasant dream, but something has soured her wakening, and she is still but for her flicking ears. There. Many hooves moving through the woods, all of them together.
That is unusual, and Djinni waits until she thinks they have stopped and attempts to estimate their location. Too far, she decides, and leaves the protection of her fire-leaved thicket to head in the direction from which she had last heard the sound of hooves.
The pied mare has never cared much about borders. She doesn’t need to when she is always safe. Even with the past year in Sylva and the year before that in Nerine, and she still does not have an adequate dose of caution in her body. She knows that most of Beqanna does care about physical boundaries, so the words that the golden Anahi voices are not unexpected. Still, perhaps a bit rash, even if they have these strangers outnumbered.
“Hello,” she says, stepping into the clearing. Her eyes are bright – she must have just seen them all standing there – and she looks from Anahai, Eiria, and Raxa to the mares standing opposite them. The grullo mare hadn’t heard anything said before her arrival (or so it seems), and she smiles perfectly politely at Harmonia and Ajatar. “What brings you two to Sylva?”
Then the wind changes, and she feels her heart pause a moment. She knows that smell. She does not know the two but she is now certain where they come from. In her travels, she has always avoided Pangea. The wasteland could have reminded her of her birthplace, but it is too dry – too dead. It is not a desert. It is a wasteland. They smell of it, the golden mare and the dark filly; they smell of emptiness.
She does not fear, but it seems she does know almost what it feels like. Djinni wishes herself safe and so she is, suddenly different and yet exactly the same.
current appearance: slim build smoky grullo tobiano sea green eyes
In case my explanation was bad, Djinni used her trait to make her true identity (i.e. a genie) not discoverable. Otherwise she’s totes a normal horse with normal horse weaknesses.
Harmonia senses the trio before they approach, getting used to her magic once more. Levitating did not take much of her energy, as it was her preferred mode of transportation for most of her life. As they crest the hill and approach Harmonia and her daughter she lets herself settle onto the ground once more, all four hooves firmly planted on the ground. She is just as unimposing as ever, a small, slight thing. In the past she would have feigned ignorance, perhaps even stupidity - Pangea sent their sad little Harmonia to collect data. Who would question a simpleton? Those days were in the past and now Harmonia is too proud, to powerful to put up such a farce. It makes her skin crawl at the thought. Still, she suspects she should be somewhat tame and not zap the trio into oblivion for annoying her.
Honestly, the entire expedition annoyed her. But everything annoyed Harmonia, so this is nothing new.
Ajatar clears her throat from the back of the pack, but Harmonia casts her a sharp glance to remind her to be silent. She still lords her power over the child despite the inkling that the girl is much stronger than her. How could she deny that? She had the scabs from her temper to prove it.
It doesn't take long for a fourth party to join, rather plain. Harmonia's magic is still new to her (newly restored, that is, not a new trait by any means) and she's splicing through it. Usually she'd dig into the minds around her and read them, and perhaps she could if she tried, but she's not interested. Really, the minds of other kingdom folk are of such little interest to her.
"Harmonia," she says by way of greeting. A poorly named thing, truly. The goddess of peace and harmony? What was her mother thinking? "And this is my daughter, Ajatar. We're from Pangea," she continues, smiling an odd, misplaced smile. "We've come to say hello. Kings orders," she adds with a wink.
Even though Zhenga could be a pain in the dock on most days, usually, the information she supplied was valuable. In this case, she alerted Raxa, Anahi, and Eiria of a couple of strangers headed their way, something Raxa wanted to investigate. Whether these strangers proved to be friendly or not, Raxa wouldn't take any chances and let them come into the territory unannounced. The warrior mare was still very protective of her home, tense after the changes of the land so many moons ago.
She'd lost things she'd cared about; she could've lost Zhenga, as the filly had just been born and it would've been easy for her to go tumbling off the mountain had they been up there for the birth. Raxa had never been more grateful for getting down to the meadow before she birthed the filly.
When Anahi requested she come along to greet the stranger, Raxa agreed immediately. Zhenga was not pleased about being left behind though, an outburst that was quickly silenced by a stomp of the hoof, a snap of the teeth, and a threat from the roan filly's dam. Raxa usually never followed through on such threats, but they got the filly to be quiet, so for now, she'd use that tactic in order to put Zhenga in her place until she really got old enough to make rational decisions, like a full-grown mare.
Raxa kept pace with Anahi and Eiria all the way until they spotted the two strangers in the distance. Flanking her friend, Raxa kept close as Anahi questioned the presence of the mare and the filly. Djinni arrived mere moments after, asking what brought the two strangers to Sylva in the first place.
Even though they didn't really look alike, Raxa was suspecting these two were related; she and Zhenga didn't look very much alike in color, so unless you got close enough to see the flecks on Raxa's coat, you might not be able to place her as Zhenga's mother.
The palomino mare spoke first. Raxa watched her body language carefully, assessing any form of a threat she may possess. At first, nothing struck her, until she spotted that smile. It didn't seem forced, but definitely misplaced. Raxa would remain cautious, but she definitely didn't trust this mare right now.
"And on what orders of your King have you come here? Diplomacy? No offense, but I cannot see you performing such a task," Raxa noted, speaking in an honest but somewhat sarcastic tone of voice that she was known for.
It's true - Harmonia is not a diplomat. The easy words that come to others fall dead and dry on her lips. She can blame any number of things, but it's her own fault. Why learn the skill when it wasn't needed? She could pry into anothers' mind and take from them, she could create falsehoods and illusions left and right. Hell, if she really wanted to get information from this kingdom she could simply put on the mask of their leader and infiltrate.
But, Harmonia is a powerful creature without any true care in the world. It means nothing to her to gain this information. She's unsure what Pollock's motives are but her own...well. She'll keep that hand close to her chest.
"It appears you do not perform the task of diplomacy either," she says to the new mare, in a way that is both dismissive and easy. If you listen to the tone of her voice you'd assume she's talking about the weather, or perhaps remarking on the size of the rainfall that year. The smile never leaves her cold, calm face.
Ajatar, against her mothers will, steps forward then - embarrassed. "Hello there," she says to the young child, barely a year younger than herself. Harmonia gives the girl a quick glare and shoves her back a full foot with her magic. The girl skids back the one foot and her ears flatten on her head, anger bubbling under her surface.
Part of Harmonia hopes the girl will unleash her strange power on the group. How else would Pangea be known as the great kingdom if they did not display their weapons? She's sad when the girl closes her eyes and takes a few deep breaths, her face melting into a mask of indifference.
Any display of power will do for Harmonia.
"No, we're not here for an olive branch or an alliance. Simply to say hello - that Pollock is our king, and that we're some of the members. Rest assured we don't want anything from you, no silly mocks or foal exchanges or whatever kingdoms do these days." Her shrug rolls off her shoulders easily at this statement, though it's unlikely to calm the crowd. "Tell me, who is your leader?"
Eiria snorted when the palomino mare insulted Djinni by saying she was not familiar with diplomatic matters either. How dare she insult the Queen like that, whether or not she knew the gray mare was in charge. The champagne mare's gaze traveled between horses as they took turns speaking, wondering what the strangers were doing here and why.
The other stranger, a dark filly, stepped forward and greeted the Sylva residents with a pleasant hello. Eiria was about to greet her in return, a smile already on her face, when the other mare glared at her and somehow shoved her away without physically touching her.
Eiria was obviously not pleased; she took a step forward, prepared to tell the mare off, but Anahi moved in front of her daughter, obviously wanting her to stay out of it. Eiria snorted and shook her head, telling her dam she didn't appreciate that, but one look into her dam's eyes made her back off. Eiria wasn't a dam's girl, but she knew when a fight was not wanted.
The palomino went on to say that she and the filly were not here for an alliance, but to say hello and introduce their king. When she questioned of their leader, Eiria grew slightly uneasy.
Before her dam could say anything, the younger champagne jumped in, "You say you are not here for an alliance; for which we can respect. However, perhaps you wish to know who our leader is for a purpose of which you have yet to reveal. I will not reveal who it is; I shall leave it up to her. May I first ask though what you wish to see her for?"
The yellow mare introduces herself, and Djinni's green eyes flick curiously from mother to daughter. She can see the resemblance, she decides, but beyond the physical likeness sees few similarities in the two females. Harmonia is far more vocal than her daughter, taking the spotlight and occupying it quite well. It's a position Djinni takes quite frequently herself, and she doesn't begrudge the palomino mare the attention due her as a visitor. Even if they are from Pangea.
They have a king, she notes, but before she can find out more, Raxa is speaking. The brindle mare proceeds to openly insult their visitors, and Djinni manages to bite her tongue while she waits for a response. There's a brief flicker of embarrassment on her dark face. When Harmonia replies with a sentiment that mirrors Djinni's own thoughts, the skewbald mare wonders if perhaps Pangea is not entirely terrible.
No, she decides as the mare shoves her child backward for speaking up. They seem to be just what she'd expected. The display of power does not go unnoticed (and there's the appropriate amount of caution in her expression afterwards) but Djinni glances back every now and then at Ajatar as Harmonia speaks.
Pollock. She's not heard the name before, but she has no intention of forgetting it. It turns out that she doesn't have to ask for now information after all; the envoy from Pangea has provided it freely. Well, perhaps not freely, she thinks as Eiria speaks up and makes demands.
"Thank you," She says to the fiery champagne filly as she steps closer to the group. Harmonia's dismissal of diplomatic skills had not been in reference to herself; Djinni knows this. "I believe I can handle things from here." Her smile is soft, her eyes warm, but the trio of mares have clearly been dismissed.
"I'm Djinni, the ruler of Sylva." She says to the Pangean visitors with a smile that seems to be an attempt to soften the previous lack of diplomacy. Perhaps she has a responsibility to foist off on someone else after all (She had so hoped to avoid having to do anything).
"It's nice to meet you Harmonia." Her green eyes turn to Ajatar then, despite the way the girl has been shoved back and away. "And you as well, Ajatar."
Djinni is curious, but she is equally wary. The palomino mare has said they are not here to extend an olive branch, and while that might mean neutrality, the grullo is doubtful. Perhaps she will keep a closer eye on Pangea rather than simply hoping it will fall into the sea.
"Is there anything else you'd like to know about Sylva?" She asks, as she settles her weight forward - leaning slightly toward the Sylvans. "Or anything else you'd care to share about Pangea?" Djinni is the picture of polite curiosity and benevolence; she doubts there are many positive outcomes of this brief meeting. Still, she's inclined to try and salvage it lest she be responsible for more damage control in the future.
Seriously? Did the mare really just shove her own daughter back? Raxa may believe in tough love when raising her own filly, but not literally like this. The worse Raxa had ever done to Zhenga was snap at her and, one time, a light kick with her back hoof as punishment for something very foolish the filly had done. However, Raxa had not done it in front of others, and certainly not to the degree that this mare had. She had no right to treat her foal that way, but who was Raxa to talk?
Eiria also seemed displeased with the mare, but before the calm-minded Anahi could hopefully say something, Djinni jumped in. The grullo sarcastically (in Raxa's mind) thanked Eiria before stating she would take over matters from here. Raxa got the message immediately and, by the look on the champagne mare's face, Anahi had as well. Still, the paint saw a glimmer of caution in the diplomat's brown eyes, something that compelled her to say what she did next.
Stepping closer to her friend, Raxa whispered low as Djinni was talking with the two visitors, "I'll stick around, just to watch over her and make sure Harmonia or Ajatar don't try anything. And, against my better judgment, I'll keep my mouth shut best I can."
Seemingly not believing but willing to let the matter drop, Anahi nodded. She bid her friend goodbye before gathering her daughter and leaving the scene, Raxa remaining behind with Djinni, Harmonia, and Ajatar.
Turning back to the conversation at hand, Raxa retained her space, but kept close enough that she could help Djinni if needed. While things were being talked about, Raxa came to the conclusion that she might either take Zhenga or go alone and take a look at Pangea to see if it would be a threat to Sylva in the future so they could prepare to protect their home.
Harmonia allows a flicker of one ear to point toward the crowd that starts to disperse amongst the murmuring mares. She doesn't need magic to hone in on their discomfort, their distrust. If she'd less of a poker face she would have smiled. She trains one ear on the queen and another ear on the small group as one mare claims to stay behind in the event they try something. Harmonia knows they are referring to herself, another thought that brings its own sense of humor. If they knew what the innocent looking foal at her side could do they'd think Harmonia little more than a fly on the wall.
She turns full attention then Djinni and offers a loaded roll of her shoulders in response. "Oh, I'm not here to probe into your military workings - I have a personal curiosity in how each kingdom has recovered from what those things that call themselves our guardians did to our home." She didn't care about the loss of the kingdoms, she cared more about the years she went without her magic. Naked, useless, she hated the memory. "Pangea is a hodgepodge of the big bads from other kingdoms, mostly the Valley it seems. What about Sylva? It sounds as though you've adopted a similar kingdom style to our previous home."
Behind her Ajatar steps to the side, grazing, one ear on the conversation, one eye on the retreating foal she wished so desperately to play with.
Harmonia
insert some super cryptic quote or lyric here, or delete it.
